Hey Jude
by angjude
Summary: Jude's close friends are Gordie, Teddy, Vern and Chris. What will happen if she goes on an adventure with them to find a body? A sequel to this is in the works. The sequel will be after Labor Day. when they start school.
1. Chapter 1

Note from the author!!!

I know my summary sucks. But I started from the beginning of the adventure. So I added my character, Jude, who is a girl.  
Then I'll start writing the sequel to it, which will take place afterwards. I just needed to get the story going.  
Sorry if you don't like it. But Yeah R&R.

:]


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Jude by The Beatles, nor do I own the book, The Body by Stephen King. And NO I also don't own Stand By Me the movie based on the book The Body.**

I live in Castle Rock, Oregon. Nothing much to do but hang out with your friends. And that's exactly what I did.  
I went to the tree house where my friends were. Chris Chambers, Gordie LeChance, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio. I didn't have many friends who were girls. Most of them stopped hanging around me since I became friends with Chris and Teddy.  
As i entered, Chris, Teddy, and Gordie were playing card games.  
"'Sup Jude," they greeted.  
"Hey, guys."  
I sat next to Gordie and opened my book.  
I lied down next to him while he played cards.

I know Gordie LeChance since my sister used to go out with Gordie's brother, Dennis. My sister, Jane, used to bring me over there all the time to hang out with Gordie. That's how I became friends with him and his friends. But after Dennis died Jane brought me there ALL the time. She talked to Gordie's mother for days on end. During those talks, sometimes Gordie and I would go into Dennis's old room. We became real close. Like brother and sister close. We looked at the prom picture of Dennis and my sister.

Jane and I dont really look alike. Just the long raven hair. We are half Asian and half British. Black hair, and brown eyes that were deeply outlined with blue edges.

Teddy Duchamp was downright crazy. In a good way I guess. I feel reeaaall bad for him though. His dad is in Togus. He looks like his dad, brown hair and brown eyes. Teddy wears glasses though. But all the same, Teddy is a fun guy. He's pretty funny even though he can be gross.

Vern Tessio was in one word, clueless. He was always paranoid and scared. But he was a nice kid who did nice things but he just wasn't the smartest person.

Chris Chambers was my favorite out of all of them. We are both a year older than Gordie, Teddy, and Vern. 13. Whoopie. I guess I kinda like him alittle more than a friend. But he's cool. He's pretty much an Outsider. He comes from a really bad family. And everyone calls him a thief. It's a little true but I would never call him that. He's protective of me sometimes. But so are Teddy and Gordie. Vern just draws a blank.

In the tree house, Chris and Teddy were smoking and laughing over Gordie's play hand. I noticed that Gordie already quit while he was ahead.  
There was a knock from the floor door.  
"That's not the secret knock," Gordie answered not looking away from his magazine.  
"I forgot it." The voice said.  
We all exchanged looks.  
"Vern."

Chris and Teddy removed the table from ontop of the floordoor and moved it aside for Vern to come up.  
"Oh, man. Oh,man. You can't believe this!! I ran all the way here from my house—"  
"_I ran all the way home, just to say 'im sorry…'" _Chris interrupted with Gordie and Teddy singing backup. I snickered.  
"Guys, im serious. Fine, I ain't tellin you nothin."  
Chris laughed and shushed Gordie and Teddy.  
"Kay, Vern what is it?"  
"Okay, guys, you won't believe this. Sincerely—"  
_"I ran all the way home..."  
_Vern was officially annoyed. And so was I.  
I rolled my eyes, "Vern, spit it out, what is it?"  
"Can you guys camp out tonight? I mean if you guys tell your folks that you guys are gonna tent out in my back field?"  
"Sure."  
"Yeah, I guess."  
I was already bored with the conversation so I turned my attention to my book.  
Teddy glanced back at Vern from his game. "So what are you pissing and moaning about Vern-o?"  
I looked at Vern. He looked around nervously. But didn't answer yet.  
"Haha, I knock." I heard Chris say.  
"What?! I don't got yourself a pat hand!"  
Gordie, like me, tuned out everyone else.  
Until Vern said, "You guys want to see a dead body?"  
At that, he had everyone's attention.  
I got up from my place and went and sat on the floor and leaned against Chris's leg.

We listened to his story about how he heard his brother talking about how he found to body of that Browers kid by accident after his brother boosted a car.

We talked about that Browers kid for a moment. He was our age. Then Chris got the sudden idea to find the kid's body and turn it in to the cops so that we could get our names in the paper for being heroes. The Browers kid probably followed the train tracks to the end of Backhollow Road. Teddy thinks the kid died from getting hit by the train.

"Yeah we'll go and find it. But how?"  
Gordie answered, "We'll just say what you said, we'll tell our parents that we're gonna stay over at your house. And you'll say that you're staying at mine. Then we'll say that we're going to the race track tomorrow. So we'll be solid until tomorrow night."  
Everyone nodded and agreed. Except for me.  
"What about me?"  
Gordie thought for a second.  
"Well, just ask Jane to cover for you. Tell her to tell your parents that she's taking you camping at the beach or something."  
I thought for a second. "That could work."

My sister agreed to lie to my parents for me. She wanted to stay over at her friend's house anyways. I didn't tell her that we were going to find a dead body. But I told her that I was just going to camp out at Gordie's. I grabbed my canteen, sleeping bag and an extra set of clothes. And a dollar just incase.

Later that day, I spotted Gordie walking through town with his camping stuff. I ran up to him.  
"Gordie!!"  
He turned. "Hey Jude."  
We walked side by side and then we saw Chris in the back of a truck. "Hey guys," he got out and thanked the driver for the ride. "Guys, you wanna see somethin?"  
"What is it, man?"  
Chris smiled. "Come on."  
He dashed and led us around the corner to the back of a diner. He ran fast, I found it hard to run in jeans. I was glad I wore a skirt since we'd be trekking around everywhere. And it was hot.  
Once we got to the back of the diner, he pulled out a .45 gun. He handed it to Gordie.  
"You wanna be the lone ranger or the sisco kid?"  
Gordie pointed it forward at a trashcan and pretended to shoot with it.  
Chris turned to me and said, "Cool, aint it?" He slung an arm around the back of my neck.  
I half-smiled. "Yeah, sure."  
Gordie pretended to shoot again. "Is this thing loaded?"  
"Does it look like I'm an idiot?" he told him incredulously.  
Gordie pulled the trigger for real.  
**BAM  
**The bullet hit the trashcan in front of us.  
"JESUS!!" we yelled. And Chris pushed me in front of him telling me to run.  
Gordie was already ahead of us.  
"Gordie did it! Gordie LeChance! It was him!" Chris shouted while laughing and pointing ahead of us.  
When we turned another corner we stopped. Chris and I were laughing but Gordie wasn't looking too happy.  
"That was a mean trick. You knew that gun was loaded…"  
I tuned them out again but they made up. And we were walking but then we saw Ace and Eyeball.  
Ace took Gordie's hat. Which Dennis gave to Gordie. Chris then called Ace an asshole. I was watching from behind Gordie. Eyeball and Ace paid no attention to me. Which was a good thing. Ace used to like my sister and is still trying to get with her so they just ignore me for the best. I saw Ace gave Eyeball Gordie's hat. And grabbed Chris's shirt back and pinned him onto the ground face first. He picked up his lit cigarette and threatened to dig the burning embers into Chris's face if he didn't take the 'asshole' thing back.  
"Stop it! You're hurting him!"  
"Let him go! Don't hurt him! Stop!"  
"Take it back."  
"Okay! I take it back, I take it back!"  
With that said, Ace lifted him back up. Chris had this scared looking glare on his face.  
Ace faced Gordie and Chris again. "Now I feel a whole lot better about this. How about you… Good."  
They walked away. Eyeball still having Gordie's Yankee cap on. We watched them go and I put a hand on Chris's shoulder. He lifted his hand and put it over mine. He took it and we hooked arms. Gordie was still staring at them, but Chris told him to let it go. Gordie fell back into step with us and we walked over to meet back with Teddy and Verne.


	3. Chapter 3

We started to walk on the railroad tracks. Gordie walked next to Chris who walked next to me, and I walked next to Vern who walked next to Teddy.  
"So why do we need a gun?"  
I was fed up with Vern's questions. "Because it might come in handy. Now what did you bring?"  
He pulled something up from his shirt pocket. It was a comb.  
I didn't even want to ask.  
We stopped walking and stood before a red bridge.  
"20 miles?"  
"Might even be 30."  
I shifted my sleeping bag over to the other shoulder. And we started walking again.  
Vern was already getting tired, "Why didn't we just hitchhike?"  
We looked at him.  
"No way, that sucks," Teddy inquired.  
Chris added, "Yeah and we got Jude with us. Who knows what kind of creeps are driving by looking for pretty girls like her."  
No one really read into what Chris said. Chris didn't even realize he had said it. But no matter, it looked like nobody had noticed. Except I did catch that but I didn't want to embarrass Chris by saying anything.

We kept walking and walking. It must be late morning now. I was lagging by walking behind Teddy who was last. But Gordie turned around and told me to stick closer and had me walk in front of them.  
They were singing the song Paladin but they finally stopped(except for Teddy) to discuss our first stop which was the junk yard.  
They started talking about Choppers, the junkyard dog. But I wasn't scared of this dog. Mainly because the rumor that goes around is that Choppers was only trained to 'sic balls'.  
"Hey, I'm hungry, who's got the food?" Vern's words struck us. Who did have the food?  
"Oh shit, did anyone bring anything?"  
"Not me. Gordie? Jude?"  
Gordie shook his head. So did I.  
"Well this is great. What are we supposed to do? Eat our feet?"  
"You mean you didn't bring anything either?!" Chris argued with Teddy.  
I shook my head and turned to Gordie. "Did you bring any money?"  
"Oh yeah," he said. "Hey guys! Lets pull our money together."  
"Yeah. Yeah."  
We sat down on the tracks and pulled out whatever amount of money we had. Gordie and I each had a dollar.  
Chris had 86 cents. Teddy had 87 cents and Vern… had 7 cents.  
Which came out to $3.37.  
"Quidaciolous is near the junk yard. So we can get stuff there."  
"Train coming," Chris warned.  
Gordie pocketed the money and we all got up and grabbed our stuff. We got off the tracks and stood off at the side at a safe distance. All of us were there except for Teddy.  
He was standing in the middle of the tracks waiting expectantly.  
"Teddy," I yelled. "What are you doing?"  
Chris looked at him, "Come on, Teddy!"  
"No," he whispered while throwing down his things. "I'm gonna dodge it."  
"Teddy, man. You're crazy. Get off the tracks."  
"Train dodge. Dig it."  
Teddy positioned himself in such a manner that it looked as though he was going to just stand there and stop it without a scratch like Superman.  
I didn't hear what Teddy said. But it had something to do about the beach at Normandy. And then he imitated the sound of a machine gun and pretended like we had one in his hand.  
The train came closer and closer.  
I glanced at Chris. "Chris…"  
Chris put his sleeping bag down and jumped onto the tracks. He grabbed hold of Teddy and tried to get him off of the tracks. He tried lifting him and pulling at him. Finally they both stumbled off of the tracks. Vern held Teddy back because he was trying to start something with Chris. Gordie backed Chris up.  
Chris was pretty fired up about this. And Teddy looked like he was about to kill him.  
"You son of a bitch! You asshole!"  
"I'm just tryin to save your life!! You tryin to kill yourself? Huh?"  
They were both breathing heavily. Pissed off.  
I managed to get between them.  
I faced Teddy first, "Calm down, man. He was trying to help."  
He looked at Chris, "I don't need no babysitter."  
"Do too."  
Teddy glared at him then.  
Chris was looking awkward. "Skin it."  
Teddy shook his head, "Coulda dodged it." And he walked back towards the tracks.  
Chris went after and again said, "Skin it."  
And Teddy did.

**heres a link of what Chris looks like in my version.  
**.


	4. Chapter 4

We trudged along the tracks for a little while longer until we finally reached the junk yard. It wasn't all that pretty. It was gated and there was an old rusty sign that said 'No Trespassing KEEP OUT'.  
Gordie made a stupid joke about Vern's mom and Teddy(like always) played Army and acted like we were about infiltrate the Nazis or somethin. He started climbing over and Vern followed suit. Gordie and Chris were already taking off their bags and throwing them over.  
I stood watching them all.  
Teddy and Vern were already over the fence. Chris turned around when he noticed that I wasn't climbing over. Gordie looked at me too.  
"Jude c'mon," Chris beckoned.  
Teddy and Vern walked back to where the fence was to wonder why I wasn't climbing over.  
"What Jude? Can't climb a fence?!" and Teddy laughed that crazy laugh of his.  
Chris walked over to me and stuck out his hand. "I'll help ya."  
I smiled and took it anyways. "Actually, I can climb a fence. But I'm wearing a skirt that just barely covers my knees."  
The guys looked up and down at my outfit. It was the sorta outfit I'd wear to an exciting event like this. To move around freely. But they looked at my skirt as if they had just noticed that I had been wearing one the whole day. And that was probably true. I've known them 2 years now, and we're either 13 or 12.  
We were all going through puberty. I've noticed that they have all gotten taller. Their voices are changing little by little. They haven't noticed any of my changes. But I was hoping they would so they could get used to it. Instead of having me come to the tree house one afternoon looking totally different to them. And not in a good way for me.  
I continued, "And I don't my skirt getting caught. Or anyone looking up it.  
They looked at me up and down again. Both Gordie's and Vern's face turned pink. Teddy was very rudely staring at my legs. Chris's expression didn't change. So maybe he has noticed some of the changes. He glanced at Teddy and punched him in the arm. Chris looked at me again.  
"That's more the reason for me to help you."  
"Okay." Gordie took my bag and lifted it over the fence to Vern. Chris climbed up and over while Gordie climbed up to the top. Chris made Teddy and Vern look the other way. Well, he didn't have to tell Vern to look the other way but he had to turn Teddy around himself. Chris turned around too. I climbed up and grabbed Gordie's hand. And I wrapped my skirt around my legs and raised it. Gordie's face turned pink again. But he helped me sit at the top of the fence.  
"Turn around now. NOT YOU TEDDY!"  
Gordie jumped down the fence. I reversed positions and inserted my feet into the fence loops. One of my hands was clutching my skirt tight and the other was holding onto the fence. I was 5 feet off the ground still. And I didn't want the jump, since most likely my skirt would fly up.  
"Good Jude, now let go of your skirt."  
"WHAT?! How do I know that you guys aren't looking?"  
"Just trust me. Let go of your skirt, grab my hand and jump."  
I did what Chris had told me to. He caught me and to make my skirt didn't fly up, he caught by the waist with one arm and the other was wrapped around the back of my thighs. My own arms were wrapped around his neck. It was awkward but atleast my skirt didn't fly up and it didn't get caught in the fence.  
I laughed, "Thanks, Chris, but you can let go of me. You're hands are awfully close to my ass."  
"Shit, sorry Jude." Chris let go of me but my arms were still wrapped around his neck. I hugged him real tight as a thank you. When we let go, he was blushing like mad. I was seriously confused. But the really embarrassing part was that the guys were staring at us. STARING HARD AND GAPING.  
"Whoaa… What was _that_?"  
"Teddy, I thanked him."  
He smiled a wily smile and said, "Oh what for…."  
Chris gave off an annoyed look, "Teddy, shut up."  
Teddy laughed his laugh but said nothing more then he started to run to the water pump. Vern ran after him and I yelled, "Hey, wait up!!"  
I ran after them and waved bye to Chris and Gordie.  
When I got to the water pump I filled up my canteen and splashed water onto my face. When I looked up again Gordie and Chris were racing.  
Chris won. And for the 1st prize he got water splashed on his face from my canteen. Chris was breathing really hard and was perspiring. He looked at me curiously.  
"Sorry, you look kinda hot."  
He smirked and responded, "Tell me something I don't know."

All 5 of us sat against an old faming machine with an empty, rusty can. We were shooting rocks into it.  
I was extremely bored. I sat in between Chris and Gordie since their location was where the best back support was. We were listening to music on the radio.  
"Have you guys been watching the Mickey Mouse Club lately?" Teddy looked intently at us.  
"Yeah," we answered in unison.  
"Well I think Annette's tits are getting bigger."  
"You think so?" Chris asked.  
Gordie joined in on the conversation, "Yeah I've been noticing lately that the 'A' and the 'E' have been bending around the side." He was making an odd gesture with his hands just to show them.  
They all laughed.  
Vern shook his head and smiled. "Annette's tits are great."  
"Yeah…" they said.  
I sat up. I usually tolerate their pervertedness but this is just gross.  
"EW! Everything you guys just said was totally degrading! How could you even have this conversation in front of a girl. In front of me, none the less."  
They all just shrugged. Because of the lack of response, I elbowed Gordie in the stomach, punched Chris in the arm, kicked Vern in the leg, and shot a rubber band at Teddy's head.  
"Sorry…" they muttered.  
Teddy leaned forward, "Yeah sorry about that. You're breasts have really been growing lately too."  
When he said this, Chris choked on the water he was drinking.  
Teddy started laughing hysterically, "You see? Chris has noticed too."  
Chris chucked a piece of wood at him. "Shut up, it's just th-that what you said wasn't something appropriate to say to her."  
"Okayyy…"  
Gordie laughed at this.  
"This is really a good time!" Vern exclaimed.  
"The most."  
"A blast."  
Gordie started spitting water out from his canteen and was trying to shoot it into the can. Then Vern tried then Chris, and then Teddy spit his out onto Vern's face. I couldn't help but laugh.  
But then he asked what time it was.  
"A quarter after 1."  
"Someone should go get the food now. The junkyard opens at 3 and Chopper will be here."  
Chris laughed, "Ohhh Chopper!" he mocked. "Sic balls. Jude, thank God you're a girl."  
I started laughing and I rested my head on his shoulder.  
"Hey Vern," Teddy joked. "Why don't you go by yourself and pick us up on the way back?"  
Vern put on his scared face. "No way, I'm not going alone."  
Gordie, Chris, and Teddy muttered the same thing.  
"I'll go! I'll be fine," I volunteered.  
Chris sat up again, "No. You're a girl, you can't go by yourself. You aren't going. At all."  
"What if I go with Gordie? Or Teddy? Or Vern?"  
"No."  
"What if I go with you?"  
"Still a no."  
Instead they flipped coins for odd one out. The first one was a 'goocher' between the 4. The next one, it so happened to be that Gordie was the odd one out.  
Then Teddy made fun of him and called him a hermaphrodite.  
"Don't call me any of your mother's pet names," he retorted.  
Teddy responded with, "What a wet-end you are, LeChance."  
"Shut-up!"  
_"I don't shut up, I grow up and when I look at you, I throw up. Blechh!"  
_"And then your mother goes around the corner and she licks it up."  
I still don't know where they got that from. But Chris started to give Vern a noogie and the three ended up wrestling after Gordie left. But then Verne gave Teddy a wet-willy and it turned into a chase between those two. Chris sat down with me and I set aside my book. I was a little mad that he wouldn't let me go. We didn't have that brother-sister relationship but he is more protective of me than my parents.  
He looked at me, "Hey."  
I nodded and returned the greeting without looking at him.  
"You mad at me?"  
I glanced at him, "Kinda."  
Chris sighed, "Is it because I didn't let you go to the store? Jude, that's a stupid reason!"  
I looked at him in disbelief. "Chris, you are way too overprotective of me."  
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Sorry I guess. There's just a lot of things that could happen to you."  
"Theres a lot of things that could happen to you too."  
Chris looked at me. "Fine, I'll make you a deal. If you stay close and not wander off like you usually do. I'll try and not be so over protective once we get back."  
"Promise?"  
"Promise." He squeezed me briefly and we sat back. We heard Teddy and Vern run back.  
Once they got to us, Teddy spoke so fast he had to repeat it again.  
"Teddy, say that again."  
"It's the junkman and Choppers. We heard the gates rattle and we saw him in his car. We heard barking from the back of the truck. We gotta go!"  
I gathered my stuff and Chris had hold of my arm and was pulling me towards the gate we previously scaled. Since Gordie wasn't there yet to help me up the gate, we all just climbed the gate at once. Chris and I sat the top of the gate and steadied ourselves so we could stand at the top. Chris and I were to jump from the top. Chris wrapping his arms around me and I was holding my skirt. We jumped and made it in time to see Gordie turn around and get caught by the junkman.  
We yelled for him to run faster and he did while yelling his head off. Once he made it over the fence, he saw the dog that he thought was the almighty Choppers. It was a Golden Retriever.  
Teddy started making fun of the dog. And the junkman got angry at him and insulted his dad. The loony in Togus. Teddy had a fit and I swear that if the fence wasn't in between them, Teddy would've killed that man.  
Chris had to hold Teddy back from climbing the fence. I held Chris's stuff since he was too busy dragging Teddy away.  
We were well away from the junkyard but Chris still had his arm around Teddy. We tried to comfort him a little about his dad but he wanted to leave it alone. So we did.

**Sorry the link didn't show up in the last chapter. Here it is.  
**.


	5. Chapter 5

We followed those train tracks into the forest. The song Lollipop was playing by the Chordettes.  
Vern and Teddy were ahead of me singing along to the song. And Gordie and Chris were behind me. I walked alone in the middle of them. Since I made that deal with Chris, I couldn't stray further ahead than anyone. Chris didn't want me behind them either or off the tracks straying into the forest. I knew why he was all of a sudden so very protective of me. He usually is protective but he was never _this_ protective. It's this Ray Browers kid. He's around our age and he got lost after going around exploring. And now he's dead because of that.  
Chris would always find me walking around aimlessly in the shrubs near the lake, or walking to no particular destination in a meadow. We left our small town to go out into the bigger world. Where it's easier to get lost. He was afraid that I wasn't looked after, I would end up like Ray Browers. Lost and dead.  
_"Hey I got some Winstons. Got them off my old man's dresser. We could smoke them after supper," _I heard Chris say to Gordie.  
_"That's cool."_  
_"Yeah, that's when a cigarette tastes best. After supper."  
"Yeah… Do you think I'm weird?"  
"Definitely."  
"I'm serious. Am I weird?"  
"Well, yeah but so what? Everyone is weird."_  
I eavesdropped on their conversation but made sure it didn't look like it by occasionally veering off to the sides of the railroad tracks and pretending to look at something interesting.  
Chris was talking to Gordie about classes and how he was glad that Gordie and I were taking college course classes. Too bad Gordie didn't want to be split up with the rest of the guys, Chris basically lectured him about how much potential Gordie has. Gordie was too smart to take shop classes. I think the same for Chris. He's smarter than his brother and smarter than me sometimes.  
_"Kids lose everything unless there's someone to look after them. And if your parents are too fucked up to do it, then maybe I should," Chris said harshly.  
_I turned around after I heard that and started walking backwards and stated, "You know Gordo, Chris is right. You should listen to him more often. He's pretty goddamn smart. Smarter than me and you, that's for sure." I smiled and turned back around.  
I heard their footsteps stop once I turned around. In front of me, Teddy and Vern were waiting for us.  
"Come on guys, hurry up!"  
"Yeah, by the time we get there the kid won't even be dead anymore."  
I heard Gordie and Chris's footsteps run up behind me until they were right next to me. We walked in silence throughout the forest. Right when we felt the sunshine on our faces again did we talk.  
Chris and I were in the front. Until we all encountered the train tracks that happened to be 100 feet above the river.  
We stood at the foot of the bridge contemplating whether or not we should take it or not. There was no side to go onto if a train came. Just water. Which was 100 feet down.  
We didn't know when the next train was going to come, but none of us really wanted to walk 5 miles to the other route. Teddy was all ready to trek across this bridge.  
"If you go 5 miles then it's another 5 miles back. I'm gonna go through here and while you guys are dragging your candyasses through that other route, I'll already be there relaxing with my thoughts."  
"Do you do that with your right hand or your left?"  
"You wish…"  
We got on the bridge very carefully. Teddy leading the way and Chris and I right after him. Chris insisted that I be right in front of him and was very glad, if I were to accidently miss my step, I would trip and fall off the bridge. Well, something like that. But I did feel safe if Chris was with me. I looked behind me and Vern was crawling since he's such a pussy and Gordie was right behind him hoping he would crawl faster, or better yet, get up and walk. I faced the front again but missed my step. Half my leg fell through the opening. But Chris caught me before I could fall forward. I lifted my leg out of the opening. Minor scratches.  
Chris held his hands out to reach for mine so I could be closer and hopefully I wouldn't miss my step. We were past half way but Vern and Gordie weren't.  
_"TRAIN!!!"_  
We looked behind us and sure enough there was a train coming. And Vern was still trying to get up from his hands and knees. I moved past Chris and was about to run the help Gordie and Vern. But Chris grabbed my hand and was pulling me forward to run. But we glanced back again and Verne tripped and fell. But he wasn't getting up. He was too scared to run or get up. Gordie was screaming at Vern to get up. The train was getting close. I tried breaking away from Chris but he had a firm grip on my hand and was running and pulling me. We got to the end of the bridge and stepped off to the side. I held onto his arm, leaned against him a little and rested my head on his shoulder like I always do.  
The train was on their tail. They were really close to the end but it was just so close to Gordie. Gordie pushed Vern off to the side and jumped too. They landed on a small dirt hill.  
"That was awesome," Teddy praised them once we got to where they were.

**Heres a pic of Jude's outfit.  
**.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Dresses/Wildflower+Waltz+Dress


	6. Chapter 6

The sun was already going down and we walked on the train tracks that went past the river and into another forest. We decided to camp out there. Somewhat near the tracks.  
We sat around a fire and roasted our food. Teddy was making fun of Vern on his 'train dodge'.  
Chris looked at Vern's roast. "You better turn yours over Vern."  
"This is the way I like it, though." And his food fell of the stick. We all laughed because he didn't listen to Chris.  
"Ah, man. What am I supposed to eat?"  
"Your dick," Teddy obliged.  
Chris snickered and added, "It'd be a pretty small meal."  
Pervertedness can get some getting used to. But I tolerated this. In fact, I even laughed.  
"You got anymore Gordie?"  
"Nope, sorry Vern," he laughed.  
Vern poked around with the stick and picked it back up again.  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After supper, Chris handed out the cigarettes that he stole from his dad. Chris hesitated giving one to me. None of the guys liked it when I smoked but they all got used to it eventually. Except for Chris, he still tries to prevent me from smoking a lot.  
Maybe it was just because I was a girl or maybe it was because his mom smoked a lot. I figure it was the second one, if I were him I wouldn't want to hang around someone who smelled a lot like his mom. I hung around my dad and his friends once, and they were smoking up a storm.  
I met Chris's mother once, and she smells the exact same way I did when I came out of that room. I went to the tree house right after that and as soon as I entered the room, Chris started asking me how many I smoked a day. He went berserk but I explained to him that I was with my dad and his friends for a while. He apologized for freaking out on me.  
I took the cigarette from him but I didn't smoke it. I just took it to show him that I'm not easily tempted.  
Everyone was sitting up except for Teddy who was lying down on his side but his head was propped up by his elbow.  
I was getting tired so I laid down on my sleeping bag and rested my head on Chris's lap while Chris suggested that Gordie tell a story. I was still awake but I closed my eyes and pretended that I was asleep.  
After Gordie's wonderful story and Teddy's constructive criticism, they talked and talked through the night. Chris played with my hair almost the entire time. He ran his hand through it and I could feel his cool, soft hands go through my hair. I moved a little and turned to my side so I was facing the fire.  
I heard Teddy ask, "Since when did you two get together?"  
Chris's hand went rigid while going through my hair, but he continued playing with it but his hand was much more shakier. I felt his body get tense after that, "What do you mean?"  
"Bullshit!! You guys are always next to each other! On the walk here, in the junkyard, on the bridge, after the bridge, right now? C'mon, you got the hots for her!!"  
Vern and Gordie laughed.  
"Admit it Christopher!! You like her. You're getting way protective of her. And you volunteered to help Jude scale the fence, man. You knew she could've scaled the fence after ALL of us scaled it first."  
Now it was Vern's turn to talk, "Yeahh, and remember when Teddy made that remark about how Jude's tits are growin? You choked. You have noticed haven't you?"  
Teddy laughed even harder, "I knew it! Do you check her out, Chris? You totally almost felt her up today at the junkyard. And lookie, lookie. I think she's sweet on ya too!"  
They all burst out laughing.  
"Oh, shut up assholes! She coulda rested her head on any of you guys!"  
"But… who's running their hand through her hair right now?"  
I decided to join the conversation. "It could've been anyone. But Teddy, I don't trust you. And Vern would become a nervous wreck. And Gordie is well… Gordie."  
They all jumped when I spoke. Chris froze and removed his hand from my hair.  
"How much did you hear," he asked.  
"Not much."  
"Did you hear where I was saying—"  
"Shut up, Teddy." I interrupted.  
I sat up and swept my hair to one side. After a moment of awkward silence we started talking about something else. Ha, actually we talked about everything. Everything but girls.  
It surprised me that they didn't. Guys weren't always interested in the opposite sex like girls were.  
Guys their age were more interested in comics and sports most of the time. But now that they are growing up, they do show some interest in us.  
We were all about to go to sleep when we heard howling in the distance.  
Chris automatically got up on his knees and pulled his gun up. Gordie crawled to go nearer to him, "What is that, Chris?" Gordie whispered.  
"Maybe it's a coyote…"  
"Sounds like a woman screaming. "  
Teddy was behind Vern, "It's not coyotes, it's his ghost."  
"Oh don't say that," Vern pleaded.  
"Aye, Teddy sit down."  
Teddy got up, went past me and went over to Chris. "I'm gonna go look for it. I wanna see the ghost."  
Vern pleaded again. "Don't say that!"  
"I just wanna see what he looks like!"  
The coyotes howled again but louder. Teddy stumbled back and fell back on me and Chris. More howls called and we looked around.  
Vern looked at us, "Maybe we should stand guard…"  
"Yeah, that's a good idea."  
Teddy got the gun from Chris and said that he would take 1st shift.  
"I call 3rd watch. Vern, you get 2nd. And Gordie will get last."  
I was confused. "What about me?"

"You don't get one. Who the hell knows what you'll do. You can take a shift with any of us. But none of us are waking you up to remind you."  
"Fine."  
I decided not to take watch with Teddy since he talks to himself sometimes like he's talking into a walkie talkie back to the Army camp or something. We kept telling him to shut up.  
I didn't want to take watch with Vern since he's so paranoid. He'd shoot anything that would've moved. Either that or he'd scream.  
I woke up again during Chris's shift. I heard Gordie wake up and gasp. He must've had a nightmare, but Chris comforted him about it.  
I heard Chris go back to the watch post, which was the nearest tree. He sat down and Gordie got up and sat down next to him.  
_"Maybe you could go into the college courses with me and Jude."  
"That'll be the day…"  
"Why not your smart enough,"_ Gordie told them.  
_"They won't let me,"_ he answered sadly.  
_"What do you mean?"_  
I heard Chris sigh, _"Just look at the way they think of my family in this town. It's the way they think of me. I'm just one of those Chambers kids."  
"That's not true…"  
"Oh, it is. No one even asked me if I took the milk money that time. I just got a 3 day vacation."  
"Did you take it?" _Gordie asked uncertainly.  
_"Yeah I took it. You knew I took it. Teddy knew I took it… everyone knew I took it. Even Vern knew it, I think. I'm pretty sure Jude knew it. But she didn't say anything to me about it when she went to visit me at home after they pulled me out of class that day._  
_"But maybe I was sorry and tried to give it back," _he continued. _  
"You tried to give it back?"  
"Maybe, just maybe. And maybe I took it to old lady Simons and told her, and the money was all there. But I still got a 3 day vacation 'cause it never showed up. And maybe next week, old lady Simons had this brand new suit on when she came to school."_  
Gordie was shocked. _"Yeah! Yeah, it was brown and it had dots on it."  
"Yeah. So let's just say that I stole the milk money but old lady Simons stole it back from me. Just suppose that I told the story. Me—Chris Chambers, kid brother to Eyeball Chambers. Do you think that anybody would've believed it?"_  
_"No…"  
"And do you think that that bitch would've tried something like that if it had been one of those douche bags from The View if they had stolen it?"  
"No way! Hell no!"  
"But with me… no. I'm sure she's had her eye on that skirt for a long time. And I'm the stupid one for tryin to give it back."_  
A silence passed. And I heard Chris try and choke back tears.  
He spoke again, "_I never thought that a teacher… Oh, who gives a fuck anyways."  
_Chris started crying. And he took a sharp intake of breath, _"I just wish… that I could go someplace where no one knows me. I guess im just a pussy, huh?"  
_Gordie whispered, _"No way, man."  
_Chris continued crying a little bit longer. Then he said_, "You should go back to sleep before your shift starts in an hour or so." _Chris sniffled.  
_"Yeah. Okay, man." _Gordie went back to his sleeping bag and went straight to sleep.  
I turned to face the sky, and I got up. Chris looked at me and then looked away, wiping his eyes and sniffled again.  
"Hey, you just wake up?"  
"No," I answered.  
He looked away again ashamed. "Oh."  
I sat down next to him and rested my head on his shoulder. It seems as though that's all I do.  
"You okay, Chris?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine."  
"I think Gordie is right, you should take college courses with us. You really are smart, you know. Doesn't mean shit what they think about you."  
"Thanks, Jude."  
He did tell me whether or not he would take the classes with me. He didn't speak a word of Ray Browers. He didn't talk about Gordie's dream or his family. I didn't say anything either. We just sat there. Chris and I. The sky was getting a bit lighter. So we woke up Gordie and went back to sleep for a few hours until the train woke us up.

**Sorry again. Damn links.  
**.

.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Dresses/Wildflower+Waltz+Dress


	7. Chapter 7

We went back on the tracks after we packed up our stuff. On the tracks we had breakfast, which wasn't much. But I wasn't that hungry anyways. Teddy and Vern were behind us playing on the tracks and Chris, Gordie and I were infront.  
Eventually Chris stopped and turned to the meadow at the side. Past the meadow was a forest.  
"Gentlemen and Jude, the royal."  
Again, we debated whether or not we should take this path or another. Taking the tracks would take longer, Chris thought we should cut through the forest. We voted on the forest.  
"Let's go." Chris grabbed my hand and we ran through the meadow heading to the forest with Gordie at our side and Teddy and Vern following. Part way into the forest, we encountered mud.  
"Can I go on someone's back, please?" Unlike them, I didn't want my shoes dirty. Or my ankles for that matter.  
"Yeah. Sure," they agreed.  
Teddy stepped forward to me, "You can ride me, if you want."  
"No, thanks." I grumbled.  
I didn't choose Vern, because if somethin freaked him out bad, he would drop me. Gordie… was skinny and a bit lanky. I looked over to Chris.  
"Hop on," and he handed his bag over to Gordie. I rolled my eyes and proceeded to jump on his back. We went through the mud for some 2 minutes. Then we encountered a pond. Chris had Gordie poke a stick into the pond to check the depth.  
"Not that deep, we can walk through."  
We stepped in. Well they did, I was still on Chris's back. Our 3rd step in, the guys were chest high in the pond. I lifted myself higher on his back so I was only waist high.  
Vern was the first to speak. "Told you we should have stuck to the tracks."  
"Is it me, or are you the world's biggest pussy?"  
"No, but I suppose this is fun for you?"  
"No… but this is," and Teddy dunked Vern's head in the water repeatedly while laughing his head off.  
"C'mon Teddy act your age!"  
"This is my age! I'm in the prime of my youth and I'll only be young once," he exclaimed.  
Chris chuckled, "Yeah, but you're gonna be stupid for the rest of your life."  
Teddy and Vern joked around. "Oh you just signed your own death warrant! You're dead Chambers!"  
I got off Chris before they attacked him. And then they started splashing around.  
I looked at Gordie and we exchanged looks. We waded to the other side of the pond. I got to the shore in time and started wringing out the water in my skirt. Gordie, unfortunately, didn't get out in time and they started attacking him too. They were right on the shore piled on Gordie and was wailing on him.  
"Stop it, I'm serious!"  
They just laughed.  
Gordie's face got all serious. "Vern, Vern there's something on your neck."  
"Yeah, right. I'm not falling for that one LeChance."  
Chris's eyes widened, "No, Vern, there is something on your neck."  
Teddy looked at it. "It's a leech." Pause. "LEECHES!!"  
They scrambled onto their feet and started removing their clothes. I freaked out but luckily I wasn't in the water as long as they were and it was only from my waist down. So I checked my legs. Only one, thank God.  
I looked over to them and the only item of clothing they had on was their underwear. They were picking leeches off themselves in a fit. Finally, they had them all off. But Gordie looked really uncertain. He looked down at his underwear and opened it.  
Horror struck his face, and he looked up at us. "Chris, Oh shit."  
He stuck his hand in pulled out a huge leech. His fingers covered in some blood. He fainted.  
"Oh my God!" we all rushed over to him.  
"Gordie!"  
"Gordie, man."  
"Gordie, you okay?"  
We looked at him. "Maybe he's dead."  
"He's still breathing, dumbass."  
I spoke, "He'll be fine, he was just in shock."  
All but Gordie looked at me. We were all still leaning over him. "Why aren't you in your underwear?"  
"Luck. Just had one leech on my calf. Nice look, by the way."  
Chris, who was obviously embarrassed being naked turned back to Gordie, "Gordie, man?"  
Gordie finally came to. "You okay?"  
He blinked, "Yeah…"  
And we helped him up.  
"Let's get you into your clothes, now."  
The rest of the guys started putting on their clothes in hopes I would forget quickly that I saw them in their undies.  
I helped Gordie by picking up his clothes, and squeezing out some of the water. I used a rag I had wipe his face, and help dry his hair. He really was like my brother sometimes.  
"Thanks."  
"You okay?"  
He nodded.  
"No, I mean… you okay… down there?" I whispered it that so the others wouldn't hear.  
"Yeah, I guess."  
"Good," and I had him take a drink of his water.  
After they were all dressed, Gordie and I sat down under a tree. He was still white from the incident.  
Teddy, Chris, and Vern were arguing over whether or not we should take Gordie back or not. Then Vern started to hit Teddy and they were both on the ground. Chris was yelling down at them and started to break them up. I got up then.  
I started yelling at Teddy.  
Until Gordie yelled. "STOP IT!!"  
We all froze.  
"I'm not going back." He got up, grabbed his stuff and started walking forward.  
I grabbed my stuff in a haste to catch up to him. When I did, I laid my hand on his shoulder. Chris caught up to us and ruffled his hair.

After a while, we got to the back Carlo Road.  
"Kay, Teddy and Vern you take the left side of the tracks. We'll take the right."  
After 1 minute of careful searching, Vern found it.  
Cautiously, we walked towards it. We examined the scene. His shoes were scattered and he was covered waist up by a shrub. Chris had me look away before he lifted the shrubs to unveil the kids face.  
I heard them gasp. I turned around against Chris's wishes. I handled it.  
We were gonna build him a stretcher. I followed Teddy to find some branches, but I saw Gordie sit down on a log, whispering to himself.  
Chris sat down next to him. I sat at their feet and leaned against their knees. Gordie started playing with my hair and started talking about Dennis. About how Gordie should've died instead of him.  
Chris was comforting him again. He put his arm around him and Gordie started crying. A moment of silence passed.  
Teddy and Vern were there. Just picking up branches. And then we saw Ace at the tracks we had just come from.  
"Fuck, what do you know about this," he said.  
Chris and I quickly got up, Chris went and was across them. Teddy and Vern were soon at his side. I was still with Gordie behind them. We saw Eyeball come into view.  
"Some bitch, my little brother." They walked off the tracks, closer to them.  
Ace spoke again. "Wasn't planning on taking the body from us, was you, boys?"  
Chris put on his brave face, "You get away, man. We found him, we got dibs."  
"Aww, we better start runnin, Eyeball. They got dibs."  
Eyeball laughed.  
"We earned him man, you guys came in a car, that's not fair, he's ours!"  
Eyeball mocked his little brother, "_That's not fair, he's ours_. Well not anymore."  
"There's four of us, Eyeball. Just make your move," Teddy said confidently.  
And just when things seemed good, 6 more guys entered in from the tracks.  
One of them was Vern's brother.  
I blocked out everything they said. I thought I was going to be sick. I just saw Vern runaway after his brother said something.  
"You guys have two choices. You either leave quietly and we take the body, or you stay and we beat the shit out of you and we still take the body," said Ace.  
I blocked everything out again. Ace said something to Chris and then Chris refused whatever it was. Ace pulled out a blade. Teddy ran.  
Chris was left at the front. Ace walked closer. For once, Eyeball showed some fear for his little brother.  
"Ace, c'mon, man."  
I was scared for his life. But then I saw Gordie pull something out of Chris's bag. It was the gun.  
"You're gonna have to kill me, Ace."  
"No problem."  
Ace came closer and closer to Chris until the blade was about to touch Chris's neck.  
Gordie pulled the gun's trigger. Ace stumbled back but caught himself.  
Gordie lowered the gun from the air until it was pointed directly at Ace.  
I quickly ran over to Chris's side. Gordie slowly moved to where we were, careful not to lower the gun or look away from Ace.  
"You're not taking him," he said. "Nobody's takin him."  
Ace was getting nervous. "C'mon, kid, just give me the gun before you take your foot off. You aint got the sec to shoot a woodchuck."  
"No, Ace, I'll kill you I swear to god."  
"Come on, LeChance, give me the gun. You must have some of your brother's good sense."  
"Suck my fat one you cheap, dime store hood."  
"What you gonna shoot us all?"  
"No Ace," Gordie reloaded the gun. "Just you…"  
Ace was all out of cards to play, he signaled for his gang to leave. "Were gonna get you for this."  
"Maybe you will and maybe you won't," Chris told him.  
"Oh, we will. We're not gonna forget this if that's what your thinkin. This is big time, baby."  
And Ace slowly walked away. Once he was out of our sight, I wrapped my arms around Chris's neck and hugged him tightly like I did the day before. Chris held me back after a few seconds, my arms were still around him though.  
He looked at Gordie, "_'Suck my fat one?'_ Whoever told you, you had a fat one, LeChance?"  
Gordie smiled, "Biggest one in four counties."  
We all grinned. Chris removed one of the hands he had around my waist and laid it on Gordie's shoulder, "Yeah…"  
Teddy and Vern came back. "Are we gonna take him?"  
Before Chris could say something, Gordie interrupted.  
"No."  
Chris and I let go of each other.  
Teddy stepped forward to Gordie, "But we came all this way, we were supposed to be heroes?"  
"Not this way, Teddy."  
Gordie grabbed a blanket from his bag. "Give me a hand, Chris."  
We all took an edge of the blanket and laid it over what was left of Ray Browers. We decided that on our way back, we would stop by Quidaciolous and make an anonymous phonecall.

**Sorry the stupid links aren't showing up.  
**http:// . com/ albums/d198 /November86 /November/rp .jpg  
**just take out the spaces.**  
http: //www. Modcloth .com/store /ModCloth/Womens /Dresses/Wildflowe r+Waltz+Dress


	8. Chapter 8

On our way back, we didn't take the shortcut through the forest like we did before and ended up with leeches. We didn't go on that bridge, where we would have to risk getting run over, we took the longer way. Once we had done what we had gone 30 miles to really do, we decided that it wouldn't hurt to take the longer route. We found ourselves on that journey. We didn't want to lose ourselves by returning so soon. But when we did. Some things had changed. For better and for worse.

I was closer than ever to Chris, I read much into that conversation they had with him during the campfire. I didn't care anyways. Neither did he. We wanted to stay friends for as long as possible.  
Then there was the Cobras. Who didn't forget…  
**Follow Jude and the gang in my sequel. **


End file.
